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Is Internet Addiction a Medical Condition?
Posted by
kdawson
on Thu Dec 14, 2006 09:48 AM
from the depraved-on-accounta-he's-deprived dept.
from the depraved-on-accounta-he's-deprived dept.
PreacherTom writes "Arising from such cases as a recent lawsuit with IBM over employee termination due to online sex chatting at work, recent debate over whether Internet abuse is a legitimate addiction, akin to alcoholism, is heating up. From the article: 'Attorneys say recognition by a court — whether in this or some future litigation — that Internet abuse is an uncontrollable addiction, and not just a bad habit, could redefine the condition as a psychological impairment worthy of protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.' The condition could even make it into the next edition of the American Psychiatric Association's DSM, making it a full-blown neurosis. It wouldn't be a huge surprise, with a recent Stanford study showing that 14% of people state it would be 'hard to stay away from the Net for even a few days in a row."
Related Stories
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Technology: Could You Be Addicted to the Internet? 261 comments
Billosaur writes "Over at The Register, Dr Stephen Juan has this interesting article on Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD). Apparently this has been around since at least 1995 and there are those lobbying for it to be included in the DSM-IV. While some people use the Internet a lot for work or to keep in touch with family & friends as well as banking and bill-paying, it's interesting to thing that some people actually become addicted. There's still a lot of controversy over the diagnosis, whether this is true addiction or not. There is more detailed information available in this paper from Viriginia Tech."
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Technology: Internet Addicts As Ill As Alcoholics? 260 comments
suntac writes to mention an article on New Scientist, reporting on a Stanford study of internet addiction. The study finds that the U.S. is 'rife' with internet addicts, who may be as addicted as alcoholics to their sweet sweet net connection. From the article: "Nearly 14% of respondents said they found it difficult to stay away from the internet for several days and 12% admitted that they often remain online longer than expected. More than 8% of those surveyed said they hid internet use from family, friends and employers, and the same percentage confessed to going online to flee from real-world problems. Approximately 6% also said their personal relationships had suffered as a result of excessive internet usage. 'Potential markers of problematic internet use are present in a sizeable portion of the population,' the researchers note." While obviously allowing relationships to suffer so you can surf eBay is a problem, where is the line between relying on the internet for news and information and addiction?
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Games: One In Nine MMOG Players Addicted? 111 comments
Gamespot is running a piece looking at a UK study which may indicate serious addiction problems among a large number of Massively Multiplayer gamers. The study, conducted at Nottingham Trent, showed that almost 12% of a 7,000 person study group showed symptoms of serious addiction, as laid down by the World Health Organization. From the article: "The survey was filled in by a self-selected sample comprising mainly males with an average age of 21, and was concerned principally with the potential for addiction to online gaming. [Director of the International Gaming Research Unit Mark] Griffiths said, 'I'm sure if we'd done this survey looking at non-online players, looking at gamers that play on stand-alone systems, my guess is that... addiction-like symptoms would have been much less prevalent.' According to Griffiths, the problem with online games is there will never be a point where the player has battled the final boss, tied up the story, and can turn the computer off with a feeling of satisfaction."
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Technology: Discussion of Internet Addiction as Mental Illness Resurfaces 279 comments
Lone Writer writes "The editorial section of the American Journal of Psychiatry for March offers the opinion that Internet addiction is a 'compulsive-impulsive' disorder, and should be added to the official guidebook of disorders. The editorial characterizes net addiction as including 'excessive gaming, [online] sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging'. From the article: 'Like other addicts, users experience cravings, urges, withdrawal and tolerance, requiring more and better equipment and software, or more and more hours online, according to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. Dr. Block says people can lose all track of time or neglect "basic drives," like eating or sleeping. Relapse rates are high, he writes, and some people may need psychoactive medications or hospitalization."
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Ridiculous, just ridiculous (Score:5, Funny)
Are you joking? A "full-blown neurosis?" That's ridiculous. Nobody is going to get fixated on the internet.
I would expand on my argument but I'm at work and I have to get a lot of stuff done. I'm chatting with s3xygurl15, buying Xmas presents on Amazon and selling my old Xbox on eBay. I also need to email my mom to see if she can bring me some ramen noodles or mac-n-cheese, since I won't have time to eat later 'cause I'm needed on a WoW raid in an hour.
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I think pinning i
Re:Ridiculous, just ridiculous (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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No, but not liking being sober does.
Re:Ridiculous, just ridiculous (Score:5, Insightful)
Comparing internet and gambling addiction to alcohol addictions destroys the meaning of the word "addiction". If someone is "addicted" to the internet, or gambling, and you lock them in a room, they may get bored, anxious, etc.
However, do the same thing to someone addicted to alcohol, and they might die. That's real addiction.
These new kinds of "addictions" are really just habits, and not much more. "Habit" used to be a word, and the word was even applied to users of hard drugs in some cases, but now it's disappeared because it's not scary enough to get attention. Every habit has been elevated to the same level as addiction to attract research funds, shift blame away from people who make poor choices, and make better headlines.
Parent
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To be fair, ANYTHING can be mentally addicting in the right individual.
Suppose a child enjoys cleaning, to a degree. Now suppose that during that child's life, s/he uses cleaning as an excuse to avoid his/her mother or farther when he hears issues invol
Re:Ridiculous, just ridiculous (Score:4, Funny)
Is there any chance that I can get my children to be addicted in this way?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I do think my point stands, though. The Internet is not a physical addiction, and it's not all bad. The only harm from overuse of the Internet, for the most part, is the opportunity cost of what else you could be doing with that time (for example, exercise, socializing in person, working on a cure for cancer, etc.) And some time spent on the net has its benefits. Just as alcohol in small doses can have its benefits (IIRC).
I think the key diff
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Look up "delirium tremens". Never mind, I'll do it for you.
From Wikipedia:
"Five percent of acute ethanol withdrawal cases progress to delirium tremens[1]. Unlike the withdrawal syndrome associated with opiate or stimulant addiction, delirium tremens (and alcohol withdrawal in general) can be fatal. Mortality can be up to 35% if untreated, though if treated early, death rates may be as low as 5%."
It sounds like you abuse alc
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We can call it the Just One More Disorder, because that phrase seems to characterize the behavior pretty well (and yes, I have issues with it myself, I've m
Well, I had Pac-Man fever in the 80's (Score:5, Funny)
-Eric
yes, an addiction (Score:2, Funny)
That's Easy. (Score:3, Interesting)
When I can't get online, I am being deprived of stimulus that makes me feel efficient. When I have to thumb through hard paper manuals to get info, it makes me feel sad, aggrivated and annoyed.
I stop looking and wait for it to come back online. I do something else.
Bad behavior = disease... why not?? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the disease, ya know. I can't help it.
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Sounds like someone didn't get his prozac this morning...
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Then you'll be told: Yes you can, here's the address to a rehabilitation service...
Re:Bad behavior = disease... why not?? (Score:5, Insightful)
For example, homosexuality was scientifically proven to be a disease before the 70's. Then because of enough protests, it became scientifically disproven. Likewise, fetishism is currently scientifically proven to be a disease, but if enough people raise a stink, that will count as scientific disproof.
It works the other way too. Formerly it was scientfically proven that alcoholism isn't a disease; people just get drunk a lot. Then because of enough protests from people who didn't want to accept that their spouse is a lousy human being who values physical pleasure over their family, it became scientifically proven that it is a disease.
Give 'em some credit.
Parent
Scientifically proven? (Score:3, Informative)
Except that by definition you can't scientifically prove anything. All you can do scientifically is advance a theory and show that is supported by experimental evidence available at the time. That's kinda the point of science: it's only as good as the evidence underlying it, and as new evidence comes to light, theories can and should be revised or dropped if this is what the evidence supports.
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Look at what happened with Pluto, it was a planet, now it isn't. Did Pluto change? Of
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- Mitch Hedberg
It must be an Addiction (Score:3, Funny)
Now, if it became an ADA issue, how would an employer compensate? By putting them in front of an IBM Selectric instead of an ThinkPad?
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Sorry about the typo. My Selectric is a little slow to respond.
Perhaps (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's face it, people get addicted off of all sorts of things: alcohol, drugs, skydiving, mountain climbing, etc. Why should Internet use be any different? Especially if you find it useful to discover information about or talk to people with interests in something you yourself enjoy. And look at MMPORGs -- are you saying WoW doesn't suck large numbers of people in?
But there's being addicted, and then there's it being a "disease." Frankly, I think B. F. Skinner would scoff at the notion. To him, everything was stimulus -> response -> reinforcement, and the more reinforcing an activity was, the more an organism would engage in it. It's not a "disease" as such, but something hard-wired into out neural make-up, and the Internet has the potential to tap into that just like anything else.
Turn off Moderation Mails (Score:5, Interesting)
Additionally, the less regular the response the more addictive it can be. The old story of the mouse who presses at the lever occasionally when it always dispenses a treat, but feverishly when it randomly dispenses a treat. Slot machines work on the same principle.
In other words, go into your Slashdot preferences and turn off mails about moderation of your comments. Don't go back and look at how your comments were moderated. They're exactly that kind of stimulus.
Parent
I actually took the time to translate an article (Score:5, Informative)
The official diagnosis systems ICD and DSM currently have identical criteria for addiction to alcohol, illegal drugs and tobacco. Addiction to gambling, sex, internet etc are not mentioned, but psychologists who care about these addictions obviously use equivalient definitions.
The diagnosis systems mention 6-7 possible symptoms which can be classified into three groups:
- increased tolerance and/or abstinence problems
- signs of loss of control (strong craving/ compulsiveness or drinking more than planned or failed to cut down on use)
- damaging effects (social, health or work-related)
Currently no "symptoms" are mandatory. The addiction diagnosis demands that one has at least 3 of 6 symptoms through the previous year (ICD-10) or 4 of 7 at one point in life (DSM-IV). One does not need to have symptoms from all three groups, for instance is lack of control not a prerequsite.
Compared to regular medical diagnoses, it's remarkable that the important boundary between healthy and ill is set at an arbitrarily chosen number of symptoms (3 out of 6 or 4 out of 7)
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You seem to be implying that non-psychiatric ailments are clear-cut in their diagnoses; while this is true in some cases (e.g., a viral infection is defined by the presence of the virus), it is not true for all diseases. Type 2 diabetes, for example, is defined as "fasting plasma glucose >= 7.0 mM, OR plasma glucose >=
If it is, then.. (Score:3, Informative)
Back in the day. (Score:5, Interesting)
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Whereas I do spend a signficant amount of time on the Internet, both at home and at work (and usually in connection with my work, in the latter case). But I could stop any time I wanted to. I know I could. I wouldn't even miss it much. Really, I could. Honest.
Seriously, though, despite there being things I do miss when I'm away from the Net for a while, I have plenty of other things I enjoy doing off-line as well. I just spend more time doing those if there's no net connection around. My biggest concern w
Addicts are addicts (Score:2)
If the person has an "addictive personality" then they will find something to be addicted to.
The President used to be an alcoholic, but now he is addicted to working out. The former is much worse of an addiction than the latter.
I have a B.S. in Psychology (Score:5, Interesting)
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If by the "field of psychology" you mean the classification and description of "mental disorders" that have no known physical pathologies, I am in complete agreement with you. Many of the things in the DSM cannot be determined by any physical means, including an autopsy. Many
Are you an Obsessive Compulsive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Right. And my father is a viola addict. (Score:5, Insightful)
But isn't every specialist that way? I bet that my father would also feel uncomfortable if he couldn't play the viola for a few days. For me, the main theme in my life is internet and computers. For others it's a musical instrument, drawing, playing soccer, etc. Everybody feels uncomfortable when they're unable to do their favourite activity for a while.
Even for "normal" people with no obsession with anything in particular it still works that way. When somebody's car breaks they're often grumpy while it's being fixed, as all of a sudden their freedom of movement got drastically reduced.
There probably are people with serious problems, but I think most of the people don't have any addiction of any sort, they simply became dependent on it, like many people depend on their car or telephone. For them it just became an indispensable tool.
In related news (Score:5, Interesting)
Cleveland Browns fans who attend every game are also claiming their rights as an addicted minority. "Its horrible" said one fan "year after year we suck and I keep going just waiting for that one big 'hit'"
Celeb Rags also applied for registration under the disability act on the basis that they have "an unreasonable compulsion to print any old crappy photo of anyone who has even been seen with someone who has been on TV", this compulsion is so bad that they are forced to produce glossy magazines every single week.
But if the Internet is an addiction ala heroin, does that make AOL methadone?
Um, like being addicted to electricity or water? (Score:2)
WTF ... NoReally ... Dang, I'm scared (Score:2)
There are more idiot dogmatist lurking at
These no-brainer-stories should be filtered as offensive stinking DS. I always wanted a NetNanney app that would filter out dogmatist StupidShit (SS nazi-like) religious, corporatist, and political crap for my browser and cable/sat/broadcast TV at home.
Is there an OSS pr
So what if it is an addiction (Score:2)
Information addict (Score:5, Interesting)
About 15 years ago I lived in an African village for 3 years. What did I miss most? My morning newspaper and public library! I know people who would say the same thing about the NY Times Crossword Puzzle. I don't see any difference between these examples and so-called internet addiction. Maybe psychologists should include these in the DSM too!
comon... seriously (Score:2, Insightful)
Time for all the "I DISAGREE!!!" replies!
Why shouldn't I fire Addicts? (Score:2)
My addiction story: (Score:5, Insightful)
While I am not sure I can fully understand the nature of addiction, I fear it. If by some chance, this was the sign of actual addiction, then I'm not sure what to do about it since it's an integral part of my work and my play. Many addictions stem, at least initially, from some sort of pleasure-rewarding recreational activity. In this case, it was more of a feeling of being cut off from a world or a life from which I get a certain level of comfort.
As to internet "behavior"? I have a hard time seeing that as being anything other than actionable by an employer. An employer can refuse to hire or may fire someone for being addicted to drugs or anything else that may be deemed as objectionable in the workplace. I'd say porn is right up there on the list.
The "medium" is one thing and the behavior is another. I think it's important to make that distinction.
Adults are SUPPOSED to be accountable for their actions and inactions. This means that if they find themselves dangerously addicted to something, they are supposed to do something to remedy the condition. You don't just stop at labeling something as a disease and throw your hands in the air. In a previous posting, I discussed a time when I found myself missing work so that I could play a video game. (XWing vs. Tie Fighter in that instance.) When I realized what I was doing, I made changes. It's what adults are supposed to do and what we are supposed to be teaching our children so that they become good adults.
So if someone is fired from their job for being addicted to drugs or alcohol, for being obese, for watching porn or chatting online at the office, then I think it's perfectly acceptable. I say this even though I am guilty of two of these offenses myself. I'm not willing to defend my own behavior by calling it a disease.
Alcoholism (Score:2)
I don't know if I completely agree with alcoholism being a medical condition, but I think at the base there is something about addiction in general that sometimes can be explained by biological makeup.
Who cares! (Score:3, Informative)
Try closing your eyes for a few days (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, I find it hard to go without the internet for a few days. In fact, it was just about as bad as going without my eyes for a few days after surgery and, I imagine (though I've never had this happen) going without my ears. Of course, going without my eyes wasn't as bad as it might have been, because I had use of the internet before hand, and was thus able to gather a fair number of useful coping tips from other people who had had the same operation.
The internet is "addicting" in the same way any other sense organ or sense-enhancing tool is addicting--once you are aware that there is a way to find out useful things about the world around you it can be very frustrating to have to live without it. For people who don't get it, I suggest removing all the mirrors from their cars for a few days to see how they like having to twist themselves into knots just to find out what's going on around them.
--MarkusQ
Slashdot Problem (Score:4, Funny)
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Not having access to your mind, I can't dispute that.
Not having access to an accurate epidemiological study, I can't dispute that either. But I suspect that many "lazy undisciplined fools" _do_ have ADHD, at least if they are underperforming and not simply stupid.
ADHD is not about focus. It's about the stability of attention.
Let me give you the benfit of my personal experience. I h